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Opinion

Latest interview – Sam Allardyce shameless as usual when it comes to Newcastle United

7 years ago
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One thing you have to give Sam Allardyce for, is his knack of never taking responsibility, simply airbrushing any inconvenient facts out of the story.

His latest interview (see below) about his time at Newcastle, Allardyce must surely have been laughing his big fat head off.

Even he can’t believe what he is saying.

One of the things he built was a relegation team, whilst the other was a small/large fortune that was his ill gotten gains after helping to send the club further down the path to ruin, the money famously paying for his luxury villa in Spain.

A third thing, that he destroyed rather than built, was that his disastrous transfer business ensured Mike Ashley would never again allow another manager to choose his own players at the club, a policy which has undermined the club ever since – particularly when Kevin Keegan was there.

Hopefully this Rafa Benitez era seeing a change, if Mike Ashley keeps his word…

These are the 10 players who Sam Allardyce brought in when at Newcastle:

Mark Viduka

Joey Barton

Alan Smith

Ben Tozer

Cacapa

Jose Enrique

Geremi

David Rozehnal

Abdoulaye Faye

Habib Beye

The club more or less got their money back on a couple of them, such as Enrique and Rozehnal, but the money that was burnt through overall on both transfer fees and wages was horrendous.

More importantly though, when Newcastle were relegated the following season, this set of players gave the club next to nothing, with only Beye and Enrique contributing anything of even small note.

If you read the quotes below, no wonder Sam Allardyce has got no problem with Mike Ashley, making a total mess and then walking away with millions of pounds.

Sam Allardyce speaking to Talksport:

“Newcastle United is a massive club and I feel aggrieved that I wasn’t given the opportunity to the job that I wanted to do, that I set out to do.

“But that wasn’t anything to do, with anything other than a dramatic change of ownership, with Mike Ashley taking over. The fastest sale of a football club in history.

“One minute Freddie Shepherd employed me to try and take the club forward…

“We had chatted two or three times previously about the job and it hadn’t quite worked out until then, finally I was happy to go and work at such a big club.

“The aim was to take the club back into European places…but over the space of two weeks the club was taken over by Mike Ashley.

“I was given the opportunity (by Mike Ashley) to take the club forward, but in the end it didn’t work out because they didn’t see me as the man that could do that.

“Mike had his own ideas and they came to the decision that they were going to change managers.

“You have to respect that because I was already there and they were taking on someone who they hadn’t chosen, they decided to change and go with someone they wanted.”

“I have to say, the decision was made very quickly and Mike and his team didn’t cause any problems.

“That is always a great relief for any manager if you are going to let them go, whether you think you deserve it or not.

“They tied up everything, the legal side of it, the day before I left, so things can then move on very quickly. I was disappointed, frustrated, but at least then I could move on and clear my mind.

“I didn’t deal with Mike Ashley much, our dealings were very few and far between, because at that point Chris Mort was made chairman.

“At that time, they were still very much finding out about football, how it works. It was still in its infancy for them and I think back then they found out the hard way, about how hard football can be.

“In all fairness, the year they got relegated (the second time under Ashley in 2015/16) they made the biggest expenditure that they had ever made for a number of years and that still didn’t work.

“Recruitment in football is everything. At any club your recruitment has to be right because ultimately it is the team on the pitch that has to get the results.”

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